What is the Coronavirus 2020
What are the symptoms caused by the virus from Wuhan in China, how does it spread, and should you call a doctor? This is some of the information we have gathered so far about the Coronavirus.
What is Covid-19 – the illness that started in Wuhan?
It is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city.
Coronavirus
Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Detailed investigations found that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.
What are the symptoms this coronavirus causes?
Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death. Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include regular hand washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.
The virus can cause pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. Recovery depends on the strength of the immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.
Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?
China’s national health commission has confirmed human-to-human transmission, and there have been such transmissions elsewhere.
Is the outbreak a pandemic and should we panic?
No. A pandemic, in WHO terms, is “the worldwide spread of a disease”. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. The WHO has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern. The key issues are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people, and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital. Often viruses that spread easily tend to have a milder impact. Generally, the coronavirus appears to be hitting older people hardest, with few cases in children.
Other Coronavirus Questions
Here’s a list of frequently asked questions about the coronavirus outbreak and its symptoms.
What if someone in my family gets sick?
if you think your children, or anyone else in your household, may be infected. Both the coronavirus and influenza are most dangerous to people who are over 65 or have chronic illnesses or a weak immune system. However, the flu appears far more dangerous to children, particularly very young ones. Children infected with the new coronavirus tend to have mild or no symptoms.
How does this compare to the flu?
While the symptoms are similar, the coronavirus seems to be more deadly than the flu — so far — and more contagious. Early estimates of the coronavirus death rate from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak, have been around 2 percent, while the seasonal flu, on average, kills about 0.1 percent of people who become infected.
How does the virus spread?
The new coronavirus seems to spread very easily, especially in homes, hospitals, churches, cruise ships and other confined spaces. It appears to spread through droplets in the air from a cough or sneeze.
Whether a surface looks dirty or clean is irrelevant. If an infected person sneezes and a droplet lands on a surface, a person who then touches that surface could pick it up.
Is there a cure? What about a vaccine?
There is no approved antiviral drug for the coronavirus, though several are being tested. For now, doctors can recommend only the usual remedies for any viral illness: rest, medicine to reduce pain and fever, and fluids to avoid dehydration.
Coronavirus patients with pneumonia may also need oxygen, and a ventilator if breathing trouble worsens.
How serious is this? Why are experts so concerned?
This virus can be deadly, clearly; there’s a reason government officials and medical experts across the world are issuing strong warnings. But the vast majority of those infected so far have only mild symptoms and make a full recovery. It is important to keep this in mind, both to avoid an unnecessary global panic and to get a clear picture of the likelihood of transmission. “Many people are now panicking, and some actually are exaggerating the risks,” said Dr. Jin Dong-yan, a virology expert at the University of Hong Kong.
Unlike other, more mild coronaviruses, this one is causing many deaths.
Experts still don’t know much about it, including how contagious it is or how it spreads.
But the coronavirus death rate may be even lower if, as most experts suspect, there are many mild or symptom-free cases that have not been detected. Still, even a disease with a relatively low death rate can take a huge toll if large numbers of people catch it.
Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-symptoms-flu.html
https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus
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